[ Academia ] [ Litigation ] [ Regulatory & Policy ] [ Transactional ] as a Relevant Course outside SLS for those interested in Financial Markets : If you expect to handle transactions involving finance in some way -- for example, serving clients who seek access to the capital markets or clients who provide the funding for a transaction or venture -- you should consider selecting a finance course like this one from the Business School. It will expose you to the kinds of discipline and methodologies used by firms engaged in the financial markets. An understanding of finance is also useful for litigators who must examine a deal that has gone wrong, or a regulator or policy lawyer who seeks to anticipate what may go wrong with certain types of financial products and innovations.
Note: As of Fall 2012, this course is routinely filled to capacity with GSB students. However, you should check with the Graduate School of Business regarding availability in a particular quarter.

General course
Description:

This course addresses the interaction between financial markets and the macro economy. First, we will focus on the role and targets of the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed), the conduct of monetary policy, and the determination of interest rates. We further provide an overview of the instruments of the money market and their valuation, such as federal funds, commercial paper and treasury bills. We then discuss the role of financial institutions, the importance of regulation and the regulator's response to financial crises, followed by a detailed discussion of the major financial crises of the past century. The last part of the course will address the interaction between stock markets and the macro economy, including the countercyclical behavior of expected stock returns and how macroeconomic variables relate to the cross-section of stock returns.

Course Style: A Substantive course teaches the law, theory, and policy in a particular area of law